Despite the advantages of coordinating efforts, from what I have seen with customers and partners, marketing and SEO managers don’t always share the same objectives when it comes to promoting content.
SEO specialists frequently work hard to reach their key performance indicators (KPIs) on schedule but rely on the marketing team’s production for success.
The marketing division is working to deliver a long-term content strategy while being guided by the CEO’s overarching objectives and the Chief Marketing Officer’s (CMO) subsequent priorities to advance demand generation and brand awareness strategies, to name a few.
Due to the length of time required to produce results or the importance of the associated attributes, the macro view of these objectives frequently prevents SEO from being used to its fullest extent.
Even though SEO tactics are frequently long-term, they are essential for realizing the potential of content marketing and generating the demand performance needed to drive exponential growth.
I provide a four-step plan in this post to bring both teams together and ensure that their objectives are reached, along with four recommended practices to create harmony between your SEO and marketing initiatives.
4-Step Strategy To Balance SEO And B2B Marketing Goals
For your creatives, avoid ambiguity and develop explicit guidelines to ensure that marketing and SEO objectives are satisfied.
1. Create A Brand And Style Guide With SEO In Mind
It’s no secret that SEO and B2B marketing can be at odds with each other. One is focused on generating traffic from search engines, while the other is focused on building relationships with customers and clients. However, it is possible to create a brand and style guide that takes both into account. Here are some tips for doing so:
- Define your target audience. Who are you trying to reach with your branding? Once you know who your target audience is, you can tailor your messaging to them.
- Keep SEO in mind when crafting your content. Make sure that your website copy, blog posts, and other marketing materials are keyword-rich and informative.
- Balance direct selling with thought leadership.
2. Optimize Each Content Asset For SEO And Marketing Goals
As a business owner, you likely understand the importance of search engine optimization (SEO). After all, SEO is what helps your target audience find your website when they search online. And, if you want to attract new customers and grow your business, you need to make sure your website is visible on search engine results pages (SERPs).
However, SEO is not the only factor that determines your website’s success. You also need to consider your marketing goals. After all, your website exists to market your products or services. So, how can you strike a balance between SEO and marketing?
Here are some tips:
- Define Your Goals: First things first, sit down and define what you want your website to achieve. Do you want to increase brand awareness? Drive sales? Generate leads?
3. Survey Your Audience To Measure The Impact Of SEO On Marketing
A recent study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of SEO software provider Moz found that SEO generates more leads than any other marketing channel, including paid search, direct mail, and print advertising.
To determine whether or not your marketing efforts are having an impact on your business goals, it’s important to survey your audience and measure the results. Here are a few tips to help you get started:
- Define your goals – What are you trying to achieve with your marketing efforts? Make sure you have a clear understanding of your business goals before you begin surveying your audience.
- Identify your target audience – Who do you want to survey? Identifying your target audience will help you focus your questions and get the most relevant feedback.
- Craft your questions – What do you want to know from your target audience?
4. Create A Content Calendar And Hold Regular Meetings Between Marketing And SEO Managers
As the SEO manager for a B2B company, you’re likely to have different priorities and goals than the marketing team. It’s important to create a content calendar that takes both departments into account and to hold regular meetings to ensure that everyone is on the same page.
By aligning your SEO and marketing efforts, you can create a cohesive strategy that leads to better results for your company. Here are a few tips for creating a content calendar that will help you balance SEO and B2B marketing goals:
- Make sure each department understands the other’s objectives. What are the marketing team’s goals? How can SEO improve their results? Make sure everyone is clear on what each department is trying to achieve.
- Work together to create an editorial calendar.
4 Best Practices To Maintain Common Ground Between CMO And SEO Needs
Use these four recommendations to keep marketing and SEO in sync:
1. Onboard Writers With Marketing And SEO Dos And Don’ts
It’s no secret that the relationship between a website’s marketing team and its SEO team can be strained. After all, their goals are often at odds with each other. Marketers want to create content that is flashy and attention-grabbing, while SEOs want keyword-rich content that search engine friendly. However, the two teams can maintain common ground if they keep the following dos and don’ts in mind.
DO: Keep Keywords in Mind
While creating content, marketers should always keep keywords in mind. This will help to ensure that the content is both search engine friendly and relevant to potential customers.
DON’T: Stuff Keywords
However, marketers should avoid stuffing keywords into their content. This will not only make the content difficult to read, but it will also turn off potential customers.
2. Utilize Social Listening
As the needs of a company’s marketing and SEO departments continue to grow, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and the head of SEO need to maintain common ground. Both department heads need to be able to understand and utilize social listening to create cohesive campaigns that will reach the target audience.
To bridge the gap between CMO and SEO, both department heads need to have a clear understanding of social listening and how it can be used to their advantage. Social listening is the process of monitoring social media channels for mentions of your brand, competitor brands, and relevant keywords. This data can be used to inform marketing and SEO strategies.
By using social listening, CMOs and SEOs can work together to create cohesive campaigns that will reach the target audience.
3. Develop A Detailed Content Strategy
It’s no secret that SEO and content strategy teams can butt heads. CMOs want flashy, attention-grabbing pieces that will make a splash, while SEOs are focused on keyword-rich pieces that will rank highly on search engine results pages. However, it is possible to maintain common ground between the two groups by developing a detailed content strategy.
Here are a few tips for developing a content strategy that will satisfy both CMOs and SEOs:
- Define your audience. Who are you trying to reach with your content? This will help you determine what type of content to create.
- Set measurable goals. What do you want your content to achieve? Whether it’s brand awareness or website traffic, setting specific goals will help you create targeted content.
- Research keywords.
4. Establish Joint Paid Media And Social Media Strategies And Goals
As the internet landscape continues to change, so do the ways that companies use it to reach their target audiences. More and more, paid media and social media are working together to create a cohesive online presence for brands. But for this to be effective, both SEO and CMO needs must be taken into account.
Paid media is a great way to get your brand in front of potential customers. But if your website isn’t optimized for search, you’re missing out on a big opportunity. Likewise, social media is a powerful tool for building relationships with customers and creating loyalty. But if your content isn’t shareable or doesn’t offer value, you’re not going to see the results you want.
That’s why it’s so important to establish joint paid media and social media strategies and goals.
Conclusion
A thoughtful strategy that combines ranking in search engine results pages with enhancing positive brand awareness is necessary to satisfy the objectives of both the CMO and the SEO manager.
However, there are other elements that you can incorporate into your content calendar to better meet CMO and SEO goals. This article provides best practices and a four-step strategy to achieve this balance.
A good example of how to increase brand awareness while ranking for highly searched keywords is to create a content strategy for the top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) stage, where search intent is less niche.
The lead can then be encouraged to proceed through the buyer’s journey and consume thought-provoking, original material that supports your marketing efforts by using this foundation.
By viewing SEO and content marketing as two sides of the same coin, you can better coordinate content development to complement one another, create a pleasant brand experience for your audience as a whole, and maximize the demand-generating potential of your marketing initiatives.
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